Our study of the older female consumer continues apace and this week one of the areas we’ve been exploring is the incredibly fascinating subject of life expectancy. And we use the words ‘incredibly fascinating’ very deliberately – ‘life’ and ‘expectancy’ are two words that usually sink the heart when put together in the same sentence, but the subject is actually profoundly interesting, and, we would argue, profoundly important in the context of marketing.
Visit the website www.mortality.org (another example of two more words that initially sound completely heart-sinking but actually lead to a wealth of fascinating insight) and you’ll find data that reveals we are in the midst of an extraordinary transition: lives are lengthening at a rate that is set to have astonishing impact.
Over the last 200 years, life expectancy has increased at a rate of more than two years every decade. This means that 100 years ago, the chances of living to 100 were less than 1%; in the year 2017, however, being a centenarian will be the norm.
Oldest Age at which 50% of babies born in 2007 are predicted still to be alive
Source: Human Mortality Database, University of California, Berkeley (USA) and Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Germany) Available at www.mortality.org
The increases in life expectancy have happened steadily over the decades but the cumulative results have astonishing impact
The impacts of these seismic shifts are discussed in brilliant detail in a book published last year ‘The 100 Year Life’. Written by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, the study looks at the impacts - for individuals, for governments and for corporations – of these changes. They argue, very convincingly, that the dominant model of the three-stage life – child-hood and education, followed by a career, and then retirement – is over, and that we are now about to witness huge change. “There will be a fundamental redesign of life; while the process is gradual and has already been ongoing for many years, it will culminate in a social and economic revolution. Just as technology and globalization, year by year, have transformed the way we live, so the changes needed to make the most of a 100 year life will do the same”
The book also makes an apposite point in connection to our research project on the older female consumer: “This lengthening of life is a crucial topic, so why has it been so little written about in the popular press? This is puzzling. After all it is not an issue that affects just a few, it affects everyone; and it is not a distant problem, it’s happening right now. Neither is it unimportant; the right responses to greater longevity yield huge benefits. So why is the subject so little discussed?”
Our experience is that this observation applies to the world of marketing as much as it does to the world at large; the ever more important older consumer – and, in particular, the ever more important older female consumer – continues to be under discussed and under understood. Yet, understanding this ever growing and ever changing audience can and will be profoundly beneficial – in almost all categories and contexts “the right responses to greater longevity (will) yield huge benefits”
The purpose of our research study is to understand and propose exactly how those huge benefits can be achieved through a closer understanding of this audience, the brands that they choose and use, and the communications that they respond to. We’ll continue to feed these findings and supporting data here on the blog, but one of our primary recommendations will be the need for a closer awareness of the really profound changes that longer lives will bring. Keep checking in on progress here (and, in the meantime, can we recommend you read The 100 Year Life? it genuinely is eye-opening)
